By Manuel Perez: Unbeaten featherweight contender Yuriorkis Gamboa (13-0, 11 KOs) survived a 2nd round knockdown to comeback and stop opponent Roger Gonzalez (27-3, 18 KOs) in the 10th round on Friday night at the Buffalo Bill’s Star Arena, Primm, Nevada. Gamboa, 27, hurt Gonzalez with a right uppercut in the 10th round, hurting him slightly. Gamboa then landed a good left hand a right uppercut while holding Gonzalez around the neck with Gamboa’s left hand.
Following that, Gamboa landed a left-right combination that drove Gonzalez to the ropes where he instinctively clinched. While in a clinch, Gamboa landed several short rabbit punches to the back of Gonzalez’s head. At that point, referee Robert Byrd stepped in and stopped the fight, ending it at 2:12 of the 10th.
The stoppage seemed more than a little odd, however, because Gonzalez appeared perfectly alight and only needed to have his mouthpiece reinserted. He probably could have easily have made it through the rest of the round without the fight needing to be stopped.
If anything, the referee should have given Gamboa a warning for the holding and hitting and the rabbit punches he threw in closing moments of the fight instead of stopping the bout and giving Gamboa a victory. In fairness to the referee, perhaps he didn’t see the fouls and through that Gonzalez had taken too much punishment and wanted to stop it.
Gamboa, the 2004 Olympic Gold Medal winner in the flyweight for Cuba, was knocked down in the 2nd round by a big right hand from Gonzalez. The knockdown, Gamboa’s fourth since starting his professional boxing career in 2007, didn’t have any lasting effects on Gamboa, though.
He immediately went after Gonzalez after the knockdown, punishing him with a flurry of punches late in the round and stalking him around the ring. At the end of the round, it was Gonzalez that needed to clinch rather than Gamboa.
From the 3rd round on, Gonzalez, 30, did little for the remainder of the fight, looking as if he was merely trying to survive rather than win the fight. Throwing very few punches in every round, Gonzalez took a lot of shots from Gamboa. Gonzalez seemed to be more content on landing occasional heavy shots and taking advantage of Gamboa’s sloppy defense.
It wasn’t hard to do. Gamboa often left his hands down by his sides and made lunging attacks, leaving himself wide open often.
In the 4th round, Gamboa continued dominating the fight and landing a lot of hard combinations. Gamboa was repeatedly warned by referee Robert Byrd to stop pushing Gonzalez, something that Gamboa would do periodically to get some space between him and the Mexican fighter. The referee ended up warning Gamboa on three separate occasions in the round but didn’t deduct any points from him.
In the 5th round, Gamboa often kept his hands down low by his sides, almost daring Gonzalez to try and throw punches. It wasn’t all that big of a deal, though, because Gonzalez looked like he was on shut down for the rest of the night, only rarely throwing a meaningful punch. It was clear that he wasn’t going to be able to reproduce his earlier knockdown. Gamboa continued dominating the fight, loading up on his shots and throwing a lot of punches, more than 80 in the round.
In the 6th and 7th rounds, Gamboa blasted away at Gonzalez, trying hard to take him out. It wasn’t happening, unfortunately, as Gonzalez showed a good chin and wasn’t in the least bit hurt by Gamboa’s heavy punches. The shots were having an effect, though, because Gonzalez’s face was now starting to turn red from all the punches he had been hit with from Gamboa. Gonzalez landed a few shots in the 7th, making the round somewhat close until the last 30 seconds of the round, at which point Gamboa threw a flurry of attention-getting shots. Most of them missed, however, but it made Gamboa look good because he was trying hard to win the round.
In the 8th round, Gamboa began to land some nice right hand uppercuts early in the round, made easier because Gamboa was holding onto Gonzalez’s neck with his left hand and pulling the Mexican’s head down to make it easier to land uppercuts. The round was mostly sloppy, as Gamboa was attacking in a wild manner, trying too hard to score a knockout and missing many of his shots.
In the 9th round, Gamboa began to load up more with his shots while at the same time increasing the volume of his punches. Again, Gamboa received a warning from the referee for shoving Gonzalez. At the end of the round, Gonzalez landed a couple of right hands but aside from that, he had done precious little in the round.
With things looking desperate for Gonzalez in the 10th and needing a knockout to win, he tried in vain to take the attack to Gamboa.
It was no use, however, as Gamboa was just too strong and active and wasn’t about to be shut down with his own offense. A minute into the round, Gamboa corned Gonzalez and landed four straight shots to the head. Gonzalez, now looking tired and hurt, escaped to the center of the ring where he shook his head as if to say, ‘I wasn’t hurt by the punches.’ Gamboa then tagged up with a right uppercut, hurting him further and then hitting him with another fight uppercut and then a combination.
The two fighters then clinched, leading to the referee Robert Byrd separating them and stopping the bout at 2:12 of the 10th. Gonzalez looked as if he could continue fighting and wasn’t badly hurt.
It was a good win for Gamboa, but the fact that he was once again was knocked down was more than a little troubling. It isn’t a good sign that he’s being knocked down by B and C-level fighters, because he still hasn’t been in with a truly big puncher yet in the featherweight division.
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